Retail establishments usually print receipts of sales transactions upon paper from a supply roll. Very often, a plurality of transactions causes the printing of a lengthy receipt document. The long document presents an unwieldy and unmanageable web that is both unsightly and cumbersome to handle. The lengthy receipt web often drapes awkwardly from the print register, interfering with the entering of additional transactions and summing of the final receipt total.
It would be desirable to provide a means by which the lengthy web can be temporarily contained until the completion of printing and cutting of the receipt.
It would also be advantageous to provide a device in which a long receipt, multiple tickets, labels, forms, etc., can be confined or contained (i.e., "buffered") before presentation.
It would additionally be a benefit to provide a mechanism wherein a lengthy receipt can be temporarily stored and thereafter discharged at a right angle to the normal discharge direction, so as not to interfere with the keyboard or face (display) of the register.
Like its aforementioned predecessor, the present invention seeks to provide a device that captures and temporarily stores a lengthy receipt web, as the transactions are printed and totalled, and the web is cut. The device then rotates through an angle of between approximately 0 to 90 degrees (preferably 90 degrees) from the normal web discharge direction, and issues the receipt. The apparatus may be oriented to allow rotation to the left or to the right, providing a presentation field of 180 degrees. In this manner, the front of a register is not encumbered by a long, suspended, receipt web.
The previous apparatus required that the stored loop of material be discharged utilizing a reverse loop in order that it be discharged. The mechanism that accomplished reversal of the paper was unnecessarily complex.
The present invention seeks to reduce the complexity inherent with the previous device. The current invention has now provided a new entrance and discharge guide mechanism. At an entrance guide, the mechanism is pivotally driven, so that when the angle of the presenter is changed, the entrance guide is pivoted 180.degree., and becomes a discharge guide. The stored paper is then dischargeable from the storage bin in a straight line, thus eliminating the previous reversal of direction. This mechanism provides a simple, less intricate design.